


these bright lights (were meant for us)

by angelquote2



Category: Fifth Harmony (Band)
Genre: Camren - Freeform, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-09-22 02:30:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9578495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelquote2/pseuds/angelquote2
Summary: When Camila Cabello gets to meet her idol, both of their lives change, for better or for worse.orjust another story where friendship turns into something more





	1. one.

There was not a single pop star in this entire world Camila Cabello loved more than Lauren Jauregui. Not even Demi could come close to the level of perfection that radiates of off Lauren. That’s why Camila almost had a heart attack on one early March morning. 

“Chancho, I’m such an idiot for forgetting to tell you this, do you remember how I told you my mom’s best friend’s daughter just came home again?” Dinah started. Camila nodded recalling that Dinah’s mom couldn’t stop gushing about how they needed to meet her. “It turns out she came back from being Lauren’s backup dancer from her tour.”

“Wait, you mean Lauren as in Lauren Jauregui?” Camila asked.

“The one and only,”

“No fucking way,”

“On top of that, I have Normani’s number in my phone,”

“You have got to be lying to me, there’s no way this is real,”

“Why would I lie to you? April fools’ day isn’t for another two weeks,”

“Because you’re just cruel to me if this is a joke,”

“I’ve met Mani already and she’s pretty cool, it turns out the reason she’s back is because Lauren’s currently starting to work on her first album.”

“Yeah, I know,”

“Wait, how?”

“She announced it on Twitter this morning,” Camila shrugged. Lauren’s only come out with two EP’s in the three years she’s been in the music industry. In her previous EP, one song made the Billboard Top 10 which shot her to fame immediately. Camila has been a fan from the beginning when she dropped her debut single. 

“Mani said that Lauren’s recording in a studio about two hours away from here,”

“No way she’s two hours away from me right now, I thought she’d be recording in Los Angeles where her label is,”

“I guess she just wanted to be near her family in Miami,”

**

There was not a better moment in Camila Cabello’s life than the moment she met Lauren Jauregui. This past year was Lauren’s first tour and she just had to come to Miami on her mom’s birthday. Dinah would never let her live down the fact that she spent the day after her mom’s birthday sobbing about the fact she didn’t get to meet Lauren.

Camila had met Normani a week after that day in math class. For days after that, she could only freak out about the fact she had touched someone who had touched Lauren before in their life. Dinah wouldn’t let that go either. Normani had up to set Camila up to meet Lauren on a day that she was working. Now today was the day, Camila didn’t know if she was actually dreaming but she was going to talk to Lauren fucking Jauregui in less than an hour. She can’t believe she woke up at an unnatural hour to meet her. Words will come out of her mouth and physically pour into Lauren’s ears. Camila buried her hands in her face as Normani kept driving out the the studio. 

“Are you okay Mila?” Normani asked.

“Great! I mean I’m fine, no I’m more than fine, I’m okay, I’m good,” Camila stumbled. Normani raised her eyebrow. “I mean I’m just a little nervous, nothing I can’t handle.”

“If you say so,” Normani shot back. They spent the rest of the ride in silence. Every mile closer they got, Camila’s pulse shot higher and higher. When they arrived, Normani pulled her out of the car and dragged her inside before she could back out. She brought her to an office where a middle aged woman sat. 

“Hello, I’m Aurora, and you must be Camilla?” Aurora stated.

“It’s Camila, but it’s nice to meet you,”

“I’m sorry about that, I’m honestly really bad with names,”

“It’s all good, it happens all the time,” Camila rasped. “Why am I here?’

“We need you to sign some forms just for security reasons, it’s not really a big deal we all had to do it,” Normani responded. 

“Here are the sheets, go ahead and read through them and take your time,” Aurora said as she brought out some papers. Camila skimmed the information. It was mainly about not being able to leak any classified information or disrespect Lauren’s privacy. Camila quickly signed after Normani reassured her. Normani led her down the hallway to a big studio. 

Camila was breathless when she saw Lauren casually laying on the couch with earbuds in jotting down lyrics. There were about a dozen people scattered around the room doing their own work. Normani cleared her throat and tapped on Lauren’s shoulder. 

“Hey Lo, someone’s here to see you,” Normani chuckled.

“H-Hey,” Camila mumbled waving shyly. Lauren’s face broke out into a huge grin as she pulled out her earbuds and jumped up from the couch.

“So you’re Camila Cabello,” Lauren smirked. Camila’s heart was racing the second Lauren’s voice rasped out those words, it was only a bonus that she had pronounced her name correctly.

“Yeah, t-that’s me and you’re Lauren Jauregui,” Camila stuttered.

“Nice to know you know who I am,” Lauren smiled. Her eyes looked even greener in real life than in the pictures. Camila knew she was staring but it didn’t matter because Lauren fucking Jauregui was here. Lauren gestured for her to come sit next to her on the couch. 

“I gotta go for a while, but i’ll be back soon, don’t have too much fun without me,” Normani teased.

“Bye Mani,” Camila stammered and gave her a quick hug before sitting down next to Lauren.

“So what do you want to do today?” Lauren asked.

“I don’t want to take you away from working on your album,” Camila shrugged. She internally high-fived herself for not stumbling over words. “What were you planning on doing?”

“I just got the rights to a couple of songs that we might try to record today and maybe write some more of the song I’ve been working on,” Lauren replied. 

“Sounds cool,” Camila laughed as Lauren groaned, “Okay fine, it sounds a little boring.”

“At least it’s better than what normal teenagers have to deal with. I get to sing all day,” Lauren countered.

“I guess I have to give that to you,” Camila sulked. Now that she felt more comfortable around Lauren, she didn’t sound like a crazy nervous fan. There was a loud knocking on the door before a young man stepped into the room.

“Lauren, we have your recording scheduled for 15 minutes. You should start your vocal warm-ups now,” he proposed. 

“Thanks Jeff, can Camila stay here during it?”

“It should be fine as long as she signed the privacy papers,” 

“You’re probably going to judge me for the weird ass sounds I’m going to make,” Lauren giggled. Camila’s brain wasn’t functioning right when she heard Lauren giggle. Wasn’t she supposed to a badass? Looks like every badass exterior has a soft interior. Camila was glad they were on such a friendly level already. She had this fear that emerged a lot recently that she and Lauren wouldn’t get along very well. When Camila came out of her thoughts, Lauren was making sounds like she was on a roller coaster and gurgling water. Camila couldn’t help but to giggle. Lauren shot her a glare but from the way her eyebrow was twitching she knew she was joking.

“I told you not to judge me,” Lauren pouted.

“Actually, you never said that, you just said and I quote You’re probably going to judge me for the weird a-”

“Okay, okay I get it I didn’t say it okay,” Lauren rasped. Jeff poked his head back into the room. 

“Everyone’s set up already, we need you in the recording area right now,” Jeff interrupted. Camila followed Lauren into the room with a lot of buttons and shit. Camila slumped down in a chair in the corner while she watched Lauren put on a big pair of headphones. Camila heart started beating so fast that she was afraid everyone could hear it when Lauren started singing. It was so pure and perfect. Camila couldn’t see a reason why she hadn’t released an acoustic album before. She was so entranced in Lauren’s voice that she didn’t even realize the song had ended and Lauren had glanced over for her approval. She quickly broke out into a goofy grin and shot her a thumbs up. Camila loved the way that made Lauren’s eyes light up. 

 

“Lauren, we know you can do better on that, your breath control was way off and you’re not putting your heart into it,” said a voice that came over the intercom. 

The light in Lauren’s eyes diminished in a second. A hard glaze covered those emerald eyes. Camila wanted to reach out and comfort her but she’d just met Lauren and she didn’t know if that was crossing friendship lines or even if they were friends. They continued to run over the same song for a couple hours before they finally disassembled. Lauren took her hand and dragged her out of the room as soon as they finished. 

“Where are we going?” Camila asked.

“Lunch,” Lauren uttered. Lauren dropped her hand and continued to stalk away. Camila jogged to catch up. 

“Are you okay?” she started nervously. Lauren avoided her eyes. 

“Yeah,” Lauren sighed. Camila could tell she was lying, she wasn’t very good at hiding it, but she knew that she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. She could feel Lauren closing off during that recording session. A small smile spread across Camila’s features as she devised a plan to cheer Lauren up.


	2. two.

There was not a single moment in Camila Cabello’s life that she felt more relaxed than when Lauren Jauregui smeared ice cream over her cheek. She had made it her goal to make Lauren laugh by the end of lunch. So far, she had done pretty well. She’d made Lauren laugh a total of 27 times, not like she was counting or anything. They had finished their lunches really quickly as neither of them were really hungry. Well, Camila was but she could pretend she wasn’t if Lauren wanted to do something else.

“This is straight up the best ice cream I have ever had,” Lauren squealed.

“I know right!” Camila exclaimed as she licked her banana ice cream. 

“How’d you know of this place? I thought you were from Miami,” Lauren questioned.

“My mom used to bring me to Naples all the time when I was a kid. We’d come here every time.”

“Not anymore?”

“I guess we just grew out of it,”

“You can never grow out of anything, it’s impossible you’ll always come back to it. Besides you can’t be older than I am.”

“17,”

“What?”

“I’m 17,”

“See? You still can be crazy kids for another few years before you actually have to turn to adulthood,” Lauren smirked. “You can be spontaneous and do whatever you want,”

“You can too,” Camila murmured gazing at her feet as they walked along.

“You’re right,” Lauren said deep in thought. All the sudden, Camila felt something sticky drip across her cheek. Her head whipped up to see Lauren cackling with laughter. She brought her hand to her cheek. There was green cream smeared all over her face. She glared at Lauren but that just made Lauren laugh harder. Camila hates wasting food but she couldn’t see any other way to get back at Lauren. She shuffled towards Lauren slowly as Lauren backed up against the wall. Camila gathered some of her ice cream in her face as Lauren covered her face and screamed. Camila snuck her hand under Lauren’s arms and onto her face and rubbed it around. Lauren gasped as Camila pulled away. Camila was doubled over in laughter now because Lauren looked like she poured a shit ton of cake batter on her face. 

“Truce?” Camila asked as she pulled out her hand for Lauren to shake. Lauren smiled and took her hand but then she pulled Camila in smacked more ice cream on her other cheek into her eye. Camila shrieked and blindly chased after Lauren. Camila ran right into Lauren which made them stumble a few steps before Lauren caught her. 

“Now we have a truce,” Lauren laughed as she grabbed Camila’s hand.

“How do I know you’re not going to betray me again?” Camila pouted. 

“Because I’ll go get us napkins and save you from the embarrassment,” Lauren answered. They ended up in some alleyway between a pastry shop and a clothing store. Lauren disappeared into the pastry and returned a minute later with a handful of napkins.

“Thanks,” Camila uttered when Lauren handed her a napkin. She’d just finished the rest of her ice cream and somehow it’d made more of a mess on her face. 

“I’d say that was pretty spontaneous, wouldn’t you?” Lauren grinned. Camila grinned back and resumed wiping her face from the residing ice cream. “The guy who ran the counter in the pastry shop wouldn’t stop giving me weird looks,”

“Serves you right,” Camila giggled. She sat down and leaned against the wall. 

“What’s your favorite song right now?” Lauren asked as she joined her. 

“Would it be weird if I said one of your songs?” Camila asked back. Lauren wrinkled her face and then laughed.

“I’d forgotten that you were actually a fan,”

“At least I’m not one of the crazy ones,” 

“No I’m pretty sure you are one,” Lauren joked. Camila laughed and poked Lauren.

“Being spontaneous is fun,” Camila continued. Lauren smiled as her eyes crinkled. Camila had always noticed that Lauren did that in interviews all the time.

“Sing for me,”

“What?”

“Sing, for me,”

“I-I can’t do that,”

“Yes, you can. I believe in you,” Lauren pleaded as she grabbed Camila’s hand. “It doesn’t have to be good, I just find it weird that you hear my voice singing in your ears all the time when I haven’t ever heard it before.”

“Um okay, w-what song?”

“One of mine,” Lauren smirked. She immediately thought of her favorite song by Lauren. She opened her mouth to start but nothing came out. She just hopelessly closed her mouth again. Lauren squeezed her hand and it gave her the feeling that she could do anything.

“I’ve never sang in front of anyone before. I only sing in my bathroom in front of the mirror,” Camila laughed. Lauren giggled at that and Camila thought that was the cutest sound she had ever heard. This time when Camila opened her mouth, words poured out to the rhythm of the song. When she finished, she was met with a gaping Lauren.

“Was it, was it really that bad?” Camila whispered.

“Holy shit, what do you mean? I’m completely speechless right now. Are you sure you’re not some god who descended from heaven to give me a reality check? That, Camila, is how you do it,” Lauren murmured in awe.

“Wait, you actually thought it was good?”

“It was astonishing,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the short chapter, i've been really busy.


	3. three.

There was not a moment in Camila Cabello’s life she was more confused by Lauren Jauregui than when she surprised her. They had exchanged numbers at the end of that day. Surprisingly enough, Lauren had liked her enough to try and maintain contact with her. What surprised her even more was that a week after that weekend, Lauren called her.

Camila stared at her phone ringing with a goofy picture of Lauren flashing up. She remember when she took this picture.

“Camila, can I have your number, like for when you have to go back to Miami?”

“W-What?”

“Your number for my phone,”

“My number for your phone?”

“Is this a question?”

“Y-Yes, I mean no, I mean yes. No it’s not a question but yes you can have it,” Camila rambled as she blushed. Lauren smirked and Camila handed Lauren her phone to fill out a contact. When Camila grabbed it back, she brought it up to her face acting as if it were a professional camera and snapped a photo.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking a photo,” Camila laughed. Lauren ran away hiding behind a dumpster.

“Whoops, there’s no use for that. I already took it,” 

Camila was snapped back to reality by the ring of her phone. She quickly answered it.

“Hello?”

“Hey it’s Lauren”

“Yeah I know, you’re in my contacts,” Camila giggled. She put down her book and jumped onto her bed.

“So you know when you told me to be spontaneous?”

“Of course, how could I forget, I ended up with my face in a pit of ice cream,”

“Yeah sorry about that, but I’m actually not, anyways when can you come back to Naples?”

“Why?”

“Just tell me and I’ll answer your question,”

“Um… I’m free next weekend. Now answer my question idiot,”

“It’s to be spontaneous,”

“What do you mean?”

“I want to record a song with you,” Camila could hear the nervousness in Lauren’s voice before she dropped her phone. Lauren Jauregui wants to record a song with her. Her. Camila Cabello. Some random fan from Miami. Recording a song with Lauren. Lauren Jauregui. Camila’s heart rate was through the roof right now. If she didn’t get medical help right now, she was sure she was going to collapse. 

“Camila? Are you still there?”

“Yeah, I’m here, I’m pretty sure I just had a heart attack though,”

“Why?” Camila was sure she was furrowing her eyebrows together in that cute puppy way right now.

“Why? Are you kidding me? Lauren Jauregui just asked me if I wanted to record a song with her,”

“I didn’t really ask,”

“Fine, demanded,”

“That’s more like it, it makes me sound more like a badass,”

“You should just let that go, everyone knows you’re just a puppy,”

“So? Just answer my question,” Camila could see Lauren pouting through the phone.

“What question?”

“If you’ll record with me,”

“So you’re agreeing that it was a question,”

“You’re killing me Camz,” Camila jumped up at the nickname.

“What did you just call me?”

“Camz, I like it,” Camila was biting her lip in happiness that Lauren just gave her a nickname. 

“I mean unless you don’t like it and I’ll stop,”

“I love it,” Camila blurted as soon as she realized she zoned out.

“Stop diverting the topic, answer my question,”

“Do your producers know?”

“No, but we can tell them when you come next week,”

“I haven’t even agreed yet Lauren,”

“But you will,”

“You know me too well,”

“So that’s a yes?”

“Only if you promise me spaghetti and bananas,”

“What’s your obsession with that anyways,”

“It’s good,” Camila shrugged

“In that case, I promise you,”

**

There was not a moment in Camila Cabello’s life that she was more nervous that when she was writing a song with Lauren Jauregui. She had arrived at the studio early Saturday morning to help Lauren break the news.

“I don’t care! This is my career and I should be allowed to make my own choices,” Lauren yelled. Camila put a hand on her arm. Lauren visibly relaxed under her touch.

“We can’t just put some nobody on your album and just waste a slot. She doesn’t have the right qualifications and we already decided on all of your collaborations Lauren,” Jeff said exasperated.

“She’s not some nobody, you haven’t heard her sing, she’s way better than anyone I’ve ever collabed with,”

“We are not putting her on your album,”

“Fine, we won’t put her on my album, but let us record a song for you and show you how good it is,”

“Fine, you have 2 days, if you can’t get a worthy song by the end of Sunday, that’ll be the end of this foolish argument. You can’t use any of the songs we have in contention for you recording, you’ll have to write your own because we aren’t wasting any songs on your stupid dreams,”

“I promise you’ll be impressed,”

But now that Camila thinks back to that arguments earlier that day, she’s sure they won’t impress Jeff. They’ve been brainstorming lyrics for hours and they’ve yet to come up with anything decent. The clock was winding down and every second she spent frustrated was one she could’ve found an actual idea.

“Camila, how about we write about love, love songs are always the best,” Lauren started.

“I don’t know anything about love, I haven’t even had my first kiss yet, how do you expect me to write about something I’m completely inexperienced in,”

“Do you have any ideas then?”

“What’re you passionate about?”

“I don’t know, world peace, bands, books, human rights,”

“Then, that’s what we’re going to write about,”

“What?”

“We can make a song with a shit ton of metaphors in it about humans,”

“Why would we?”

“Because it’s always easiest to write what you’re passionate about,” Camila squealed. She saw a gleam of hope in Lauren’s eyes. Lauren quickly turned to her page and started scribbling down words. They worked in unison writing the song until they fell asleep on that rusty old couch.

The next morning, Lauren brought Camila to the recording studio to record their song. 

//  
Don't wanna be an American idiot.

Don't want a nation under the new mania

And can you hear the sound of hysteria?

The subliminal mind fuck America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.

All across the alienation.

Where everything isn't meant to be okay.

Television dreams of tomorrow.

We're not the ones who're meant to follow.

For that's enough to argue.

Well maybe I'm the faggot America.

I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.

Now everybody do the propaganda.

And sing along to the age of paranoia.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.

All across the alienation.

Where everything isn't meant to be okay.

Television dreams of tomorrow.

We're not the ones who're meant to follow.

For that's enough to argue.

Don't want to be an American idiot.

One nation controlled by the media.

Information age of hysteria.

It's calling out to idiot America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.

All across the alienation.

Where everything isn't meant to be okay.

Television dreams of tomorrow.

We're not the ones who're meant to follow.

For that's enough to argue.  
//

By lunch they had finished recording the song. They handed it off to the editing team before heading out for lunch.

“Wow this is really like a dream come true,”

“How so?”

“I’m recording a song with Lauren Jauregui, do you know how many people would kill to be in my place right now?”

“But I chose you,” Lauren pouted.

“If I remember correctly, you promised me spaghetti and bananas?” 

“Ugh, I hate you so much,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i kinda just put this together randomly while half asleep and decided to post this. anyways the song is american idiot by green day


	4. four.

There was not a single moment in Camila Cabello’s life that she was more scared than when she’d performed in front of a live audience with Lauren Jauregui. Lauren’s new single was premiering for the whole world tonight, and she did not want to screw it up.

**3 Months Later ******

********

********

“Today is the premiere of Lauren Jauregui’s new single, American Idiot, it features a new artist name Camila Cabello. We’re so excited to hear it performed and premiered on the AMAs,” an announcer yelled into the mic.

“Oh god, I don’t think I’m prepared for this, Lo,” Camila whispered as she listened to the announcer. She clutched Lauren’s hand as her makeup artist applied the last of her makeup. She felt tight in the slim dress they shoved her into. If it were her choice, she would be performing with sweatpants on. 

“It’ll be okay, they already love you,” Lauren assured Camila.

“But this is your lead single, and I can’t screw it up,”

“Don’t worry, if you mess anything up, you can use the playback,” 

“I don’t want to do that though,”

“It’s going to be okay Camz,” Lauren squeezed her hand. 

“And the New Artist of the Year goes to The Chainsmokers,” someone spoke.

“Lauren, that’s your cure, you’re up,” Jeff said as he barged into the room, “Everything should be good, nothing messed up during soundcheck, so you should be good.”

“We got this,” Lauren whispered as she pulled Camila behind the stage. The music started playing as Camila calmed herself down. She lifted her mic and entered the stage. The bright lights shone down on her, she momentarily froze watching the audience with their eyes drilled on her. Her voice continued moving as her eyes stilled. She watched as Lauren entered the stage for her verse on her side. Camila unfroze from her fear. She quickly rejoined the choreography.

**

There was not a single moment in Camila Cabello’s life that she felt happier than when she had her first kiss. It was everything she could ever want. It was with the only person she could ever want.

“Camz, that was amazing!” Lauren exclaimed. Lauren embraced her, she could smell Lauren’s perfume tangling with the adrenaline of the performance.

“Thanks,” Camila replied. 

“That was by far the best performance of my life,” Lauren smirked. She pulled Camila back into the dressing room, “You looked a bit scared at the beginning, but you worked it out right? I told you it wouldn’t be that bad.”

“It was amazing, the crowd loved it. You’re such a great writer, the power of the lyrics was so strong and you expressed it so well through your voice Lauren,”

“You were half of the glory, remember?”

“Honestly, it could’ve just been you and you would’ve shone brighter than the lights, they were meant for you,”

“Well, it was you and me, it was us,” Lauren laughed. Suddenly, Lauren was right in front of her. Her raspy voice echoing around Camila’s ears. All she could focus on was the pink tinge of Lauren’s lips. Camila was afraid of the rejection, but the adrenaline still running through her pushed her to close the gap. Her lips were soft, they tasted like red wine. Lauren’s lips moved expertly on Camila’s. She quickly pulled away before Lauren could.

“Camz--,” Lauren started.

“I’m sorry, it was just the spur of the moment thing. Don’t read too much into it, I’m sorry. It won’t happen again--,” Camila rambled on. Lauren cut her off with a swift kiss. Camila’s heart stopped as Lauren continued. Lauren slowly pulled away afterwards.

“These bright lights were meant for us,” Lauren smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk if i want to write an epilogue

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! I haven't got to write a fic for so long. I hope it's not that bad.


End file.
